A new store in South Mumbai for make-up lovers

Over time, Phoenix Mills has turned into a beauty hub with cosmetics and skin care brands vying for elbowroom in the vast mill-land-turned-shopping-destination. The newest entrant in the list is French cosmetics store chain, Sephora that opened last week.

And, just as it created a mob-like frenzy when it opened its first store in India, in Delhi back in 2012, the Mumbai store opening day rush saw queues snaking all around the floor of the mall. When we dropped by a week later, it was still buzzing with customers.

The store stocks a wide range of in-house products

On offer are brands, some which the city had no access to and many that have been around. In the first category are Sephora’s range of products, which includes bath and body products such as scrubs, shower gels, body butters and lotions, lipsticks, eye shadows, eye pencils, nail enamels and make-up brushes too. On an average, nail colours cost Rs 700 while lipsticks start from Rs 1,000. Also available are popular facemask sheets for Rs 400 (approximately), for those who don’t wish to be left behind in the mask face Instagram photo craze. There is also a tiny section for men that offers shaving foams, shower gels and eye creams. Our picks are their small travel pack range, which includes fizzy soaps too.

Other erstwhile unavailable brands include Make Up For Ever (beauty addicts might want to pick up their foundations), Benefit and Soap & Glory. Benefit’s popular tints, that work as cheek and lip stains, seemed to be popular picks, so were the POREfessional pore minimising balms (mini packs available for `940). A brow bar — where you can get your brows done — stands in the centre but wasn’t functional when we visited. Our favourite from Soap & Glory was their moisturising after-bath body mist. Another cool brand is Stila; pick their extremely matte liquid lipsticks that give great colour and dry up in minutes.

Now, you don’t need to ask globe-trotting friends for Benefit’s tints

Percy & Reed’s sought- after hair products, including their volumising shampoos and masks can also be found here. Lip balm addicts might go berserk in Burt’s Bees section, which stocks everything from the classic Beeswax Lip Balm to Baby Bee products. Other luxury skin care products include Omorovicza and Boscia. However, you do pay more than what you would outside of India.

Sephora has counters for several other famous brands including Guerlain, Dior and Givenchy, giving you the opportunity to sample each of them (great for lipstick swatches, we feel) at one go. There is a huge section for fragrances for men and women, which includes usual suspects such as Davidoff, Marc Jacobs, with Tom Ford’s luxe perfumes as an ideal value-addition. The staff is friendly and helpful, and there are plenty of testers to try every product before you find your sweet deal.

Despite countless brands, we were hoping to spot Urban Decay, Nyx, Smashbox and Nars. As soon as these are spotted here, we feel there will be no stopping make-up hoarders from going broke.